MINTS - MLL-based Integrated THz Frequency Synthesizers

In the project MINTS we investigate and demonstrate electronic-photonic THz frequency synthesizer architectures which conform to the requirements of integration in silicon photonics (SiPh) and/or Indium Phosphite (InP) photonic technology. Building on the excellent spectral properties of mode-locked lasers (MLL) it is the target to achieve a jitter rsp. phase noise performance of at least one order of magnitude better than any purely electronic THz frequency synthesizer while achieving a similar or better frequency range and comparable frequency resolution.

The improvement in phase noise performance of the electronic-photonic THz synthesizers is achieved by locking electronic oscillators rsp. laser diodes onto the MLL signal, depending on the synthesizer architecture. We will investigate different MLL-based THz frequency synthesizer architectures both experimentally and analytically. Novel tuning techniques are proposed to achieve continuous frequency tuning. Effects of an integrated realization in InP and SiPh technologies will be studied analytically and experimentally.

Our research focuses on synthesizer architecture studies and implementations in InP and silicon Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) technology. Since integration of the MLL itself is not in the focus of the proposed project, we will make use of commercial ultra-low-jitter MLLs from Menhir Photonics and Menlo Systems for synthesizer experiments. Together with ongoing research of other groups on integrated MLLs the project MINTS will pave the way for compact integrated THz frequency synthesizers in InP and SiPh technology with exceptionally low phase noise.